Todd White commemorated the event in his painting: "Nice Doing Business With Ya".

(Click to enlarge)

A Vanity Fair magazine article tells the story of rising artist Todd White, who formerly worked on the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon, Peggy Howell, the enthusiastic gallery owner who promoted and sold his paintings, and their falling out, which involved three ninjas.

In 2003, at an art show in Los Angeles, White met Peggy Howell, who showed an immediate and intense interest in his work. Howell and White had plenty in common. Like him, she was a self-made go-getter from the South—an army brat from Arkansas who, after a career in corporate architecture, clawed her way up the art market. “Peggy was a hustler,” White says. “She was a mover, a shaker. She could sell art.” White recalls Howell telling him that she had once convinced a gowned bride in the bathroom of the Hyatt to buy one of White’s pieces before her ceremony began.

Howell was just as impressed by White’s ambition. “He was absolutely determined to be one of the top living artists,” she says, “and I could see it in his eyes.” Howell, who introduced herself to White’s friends as “Mama Peg,” took an almost maternal interest in the rising star. She was also his passionate promoter, transforming the Hyatt gallery from a second-rate tourist shop to a destination for the well-heeled patrons of Orange County. “She wanted to be Todd’s number one gallery”...